Unipoli Green—Four Universities
Working Together for Sustainability
Eveliina Asikainen, Sannamari Hellman, Lotta Parjanen,
Marika Puputti, Saana Raatikainen and Marjut Schroderus
Abstract
This paper introduces the Finnish context for promoting sustainable development
in higher education and describes and analyzes the development of cooperation
in Tampere, Finland: its benefits, challenges and limitations. The expectations for
universities to promote sustainable development are rising while the resources
for sustainability work are scarce. In Tampere there are four universities, Police
University College, Tampere University of Applied Science, Tampere University
of Technology and University of Tampere, educating and employing over 40,000
people. Promoting sustainability is in different phases at each of these
universities. The coordinators of sustainable development in these universities
met in spring 2014 and agreed on information sharing and cooperation in the
form of concrete events and thematic days. This initiative was supported by the
existence of the universities’ cooperation platform UNIPOLI. Later the
cooperation has found three major fields: (1) awareness raising, (2) sharing
information and influencing management and (3) curriculum development.
Possibility of sharing knowledge and experiences and building a community has
enabled more efficient actions in all these fields, but the vague mandate of
network has caused confusion and hindered realization of some ideas.
E. Asikainen (&)
Department of Industrial Engineering, Tampere University of Applied Sciences,
Kuntokatu 3, 33520 Tampere, Finland
e-mail: eveliina.asikainen@tamk.fi
S. Hellman M. Schroderus
Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland
L. Parjanen
Police University College, Tampere, Finland
M. Puputti S. Raatikainen
University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland
© Springer International Publishing AG 2017
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Handbook of Theory and Practice of Sustainable
Development in Higher Education, World Sustainability Series,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-47895-1_16
257
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E. Asikainen et al.
Keywords
Sustainability
1
Higher education institutions Networking
Introduction
The universities’ and other higher education institutions’ role as vanguards of
sustainable development is stated in many international declarations (see e.g. Leal
Filho 2010; Amaral et al. 2015). In Finland new goals for Education for Sustainable
Development were set in the beginning of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (Melén-Paaso 2006). The sustainability coordinators of
universities are agents of change who are expected to promote broad and strategic
goals, turn them into practises or teaching modules and challenge prevailing ways
of working. The typical obstacles hindering successful sustainability work characterized by Velasquez et al. (2005) are part of the Finnish sustainable development
promotion reality. There is very little supporting staff or peer colleagues with whom
one could share the challenges in integrating the sustainability aspects into education or into daily activities at campus.
According to Kurland (2011) a strong in-campus network is essential in promotion of SD. We, as authors, fully agree, but want to emphasize the importance of
local inter-institutional cooperation in empowering the critical change agents. Four
HEIs located in Tampere, Finland, have tackled this situation by networking. The
Finnish higher education system consists of two complementary sectors: polytechnics (universities of applied sciences) and universities (Ministry of Education
and Culture 2016). Two members of the network are universities (University of
Tampere and Tampere University of Technology) and two polytechnics (Tampere
University of Applied Sciences and The Police University College). The higher
education institutions’ collaboration network in Tampere, UNIPOLI, also participates in the cooperation.
The paper aims at critically reflecting the development of a cooperation network
of professionals working to promote SD in universities located in same city. The
paper starts with a general description of policies steering SD in higher education in
Finland, which is essential in order to understand the context. Also the backgrounds, policies and developments before 2014 when the cooperation started are
shortly reviewed. The main part of the paper describes how the cooperation
between universities works in practise and assesses the achievements. As reflections
of inter-institutional cooperation are rare, this example can provide useful insights
which can help others in organizing inter-institution cooperation.
Unipoli Green—Four Universities Working Together …
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Methods
The paper is based on document analysis and authors’ experiences and reflections.
National policy papers and reviews on the development of SD in Finland are used
to describe the context in which Finnish HEIs work in SD promotion. The networking institutions’ policy papers and in-house documents are used to present
local developments and describe the working environment of the network. Finally
the authors’ experiences and reflections of the cooperation are used to evaluate the
success and development needs of the cooperation. Reflections of cooperation were
collected and written down in two UNIPOLI Green meetings during autumn 2016.
Quotes used in the paper are from these discussions.
3
Sustainable Development and Higher Education
in Finland
In Finland discussion about environmental education and education for sustainable
development (ESD) in higher education began after Rio 1992 Summit and was
followed by Agenda 21 for the Baltic Sea Region (Baltic 21 1998). In the early
years of SD promotion education was considered as a cross-sectoral target but it
was soon noticed that this was not enough to promote ESD. Therefore an Agenda
21 adapted for Education in the Baltic Sea Region was accepted in 2002 (Baltic 21E
2002). The same year the United Nations General Assembly declared the Decade of
Education for Sustainable Development 2005–2014 (DESD). In Finland these two
programs were joined into one action plan called Sustainable Development in
education; Implementation of Baltic 21E Programme and Finnish strategy for the
Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) (Melén-Paaso
2006).
This action plan set objects or recommendations for all levels of education in
Finland. For the universities and the universities of applied sciences there were
separate recommendations. The universities were supposed to (1) integrate sustainable development into their education, research and strategies, (2) create partnerships with universities in developing countries and (3) implement environmental
action plans that also include goals for sustainable consumption. The universities of
applied sciences were expected to consider sustainable development in their
strategies, daily practises, curriculum development, research and development, and
in international cooperation (Melén-Paaso 2006, 62–64).
Partnerships with universities in developing countries were enhanced when
eleven Finnish universities decided to promote international development as a part
of their international strategies in 2002. An inter-university network UniPID was
started also in response to the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development.
The UniPID network provides the strategic coordination to build ties and increase
cooperation between Finnish universities in the field of international development
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cooperation (UniPID 2011). University of Tampere and Tampere University of
Technology are members of UniPID.
In the early years of DESD the Ministry of Education promoted research projects about ESD in higher education and supported implementation (e.g. Kaivola
and Rohweder, 2006, 2007). With the support of these research projects and the
national ESD resource center in Åbo Akademi University a Finnish SD Forum in
Higher Education was started in 2008 (BUP 2016). This Forum aims at supporting
especially university teachers in integrating SD into higher education. It received
some funding during its early years, but later no resources have been allocated for
coordination. Therefore the Forum works only if some university is active in
summoning a meeting or organizing a seminar. The Forum has a mailing list which
enables information sharing between the HEIs. During the years the Forum has
collectively tried to influence on the Ministry of Education to add some elements
encouraging universities to promote SD into governmental steering.
The Rectors’ Conference of Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences (ARENE)
responded to the Ministry’s guidelines by ordering a report on developing indicators of SD for Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences. This report states that work
on SD in Universities of Applied Sciences should focus on (1) sustainable management and organization culture, (2) sustainable teaching and learning and
(3) research and development activities promoting sustainability (Virtanen et al.
2008). This report has served well in promoting sustainability work in UASes, also
in TAMK.
In 2011–2013 a project called Education for Sustainable Development in Academia in the Nordic countries (ESDAN) was carried out by three Nordic universities: Novia University of Applied Sciences in Finland, University of Gävle in
Sweden and University of Roskilde in Denmark. Purpose of the project was to help
Nordic HEIs to integrate SD into education (Holm 2014). The special focus was to
use the already existing quality systems in the integration work.
All together 11 HEIs took part the project in Sweden, Denmark and Finland. The
project resulted in developing a process model to enhance ESD in HEIs with
management systems. Also relevant sustainability aspects in the degree programs
were identified. The experiences and results were disseminated in four seminars
(Ibid. 139–151).
The historical review shows that there is a political consensus on the importance
of sustainable development in higher education in Finland and the Ministry of
Education has supported many publications on ESD (see e.g. Kaivola and Rohweder 2007). However, resources to support universities in their sustainability work
and inclusion of sustainability into the steering mechanisms of the HEIs have been
missing. This has resulted in great variation in the implementation and goals of SD
work in Finnish universities. Some have adopted environmental management
systems (Holm 2014) or used their green campus developments in marketing (LUT
2016). Some are still in the beginning of their sustainability work. This indicates
that without clear objects and steering measures, sustainability work is easily
overlooked. As an answer to the situation the HEIs in Tampere started creating local
network.
Unipoli Green—Four Universities Working Together …
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Local Background
Each participating HEI in Tampere has its own area of expertise and they work in
close collaboration “to form one of Finland’s most attractive and multidisciplinary
consortia for education, research and regional development” (TAMK 2016c).
TAMK, TUT, UTA and the Police University College comprise a dynamic and a
regionally and globally connected network of expertise.
University of Tampere (UTA) is a culturally-committed higher education institution with the social mission of educating visionaries who understand the world
and change it (UTA 2016b). UTA is committed to creating a sustainable world in
which all people have an equal right to well-being. UTA is Finland’s biggest
provider of higher education in social and administrative sciences, and has strong
profile in the multidisciplinary research and education on society and health. UTA
offers 26 Degree Programs in Finnish and 12 Master’s Degree Programs in English.
It is a community of 15,000 students and 2000 employees and operates on three
campuses in Tampere (UTA 2016d).
Tampere University of Technology (TUT) explores new avenues of research and
education in the fields of engineering. The University acknowledges its responsibility for the future by maintaining high ethical standards in all its endeavors for the
benefit of the environment, Finnish society and humanity as a whole (TUT 2016b).
TUT campus is a community on 10,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students
and nearly 2000 employees. There are 7 Bachelor’s Programs (one in English), 21
Master’s Program’s (eight in English) and 5 Doctoral Studies Programs in technology and architecture. TUT’s leading-edge fields of research are signal processing, optics and photonics, intelligent machines, bio-modelling and the built
environment (TUT 2016a).
Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) merged from two Universities
of applied sciences in 2010. Engineering, business and health care form the
backbone of TAMK, but the degree programs cover a diverse range of professions
from music to business, forestry and media. About 10,000 degree students and 700
staff members study and work in over 40 degree programs—seven of which are in
English—on seven campuses in Tampere region. Sustainable development is one of
the values stated in the strategy of TAMK, and TAMK is committed in making
Finnish education competence available worldwide (TAMK 2016a).
The Police University College (POLAMK) is the only institute in Finland
training police officers. It is responsible for police training recruitment, for selection
of students for diploma and advanced programs, for organizing diploma and
advanced studies, for further training given in the training institute and for research
and development in the police field (POLAMK 2016). The Police University
College employs approximately 200 people, over half of whom are teaching staff.
Broad social responsibility is one of the objectives expressed in the strategy and in
the police officer’s oath (Police of Finland 2016).
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UTA, TUT and TAMK signed Unipoli Tampere Agreement in 2006. Police
University College joined the Unipoli Tampere network in 2013. The agreement
aims at establishing closer ties between the institutions, supporting efficient use of
resources and promoting the city’s development into an international hub of
expertise. Unipoli collaboration focuses on four strategic areas: education, internationalization, research and development, and support services, which are all
related to sustainable development (Unipoli 2015). In autumn 2014 UTA, TUT and
TAMK started discussion on even deeper cooperation and possibly merging the
universities in near future. This process was named as Tampere3 (TAMK 2016c).
5
Sustainability Work in the Universities
The four universities have developed SD promotion independently and thus arrived
in varying solutions in organizing sustainability work. Also the weight given to SD
varies. Features describing the each university’s SD work have been compiled in
Table 1 and are discussed next.
In UTA and TUT SD promotion started in 1996 and in TAMK 2003. Origins of
SD work in the universities vary. UTA had an active group of students, who started
Ecocampus project aiming at diminishing environmental impacts of the university
(UTA 2013). In TAMK the original driving force was the Degree Program of
Environmental Engineering, which used the polytechnic as living lab in Environmental Management and organized many awareness raising campaigns for other
students and staff (TAMK 2012). In TUT the initiative came from an active teacher
and in POLAMK from the management.
The commitment of top management plays a vital role in SD promotion.
In UTA, TAMK and TUT there is strategic commitment to SD (TAMK 2016b;
TUT 2016b; UTA 2016b). TAMK has also given a public commitment in sustainability (Commitement2050 2016). One common feature of organizing SD work
in these universities is having an official advisory group to support SD coordinator’s work. However, the resources allocated to, and organization of sustainability
work, varies greatly in the universities (see Table 1). Whereas in UTA there is a
full-time environmental coordinator, in TAMK sustainability work is led by a
lecturer along with her teaching duties. TUT has an environmental expert, but there
are no resources for wider sustainability work. In POLAMK the organization of SD
work is still taking shape.
In UTA, TAMK and TUT sustainability work is steered with sustainability
action plan (e.g. TAMK 2012; UTA 2012), but there are remarkable differences in
the scope, accuracy and ways of monitoring of the plans. The UTA and TUT action
plans include indicators to monitor development and are published yearly (see e.g.
UTA 2016c).
Promoting ESD started in UTA in 2007 with a survey for the university faculties
resulting in a report (Lindroos and Raatikainen 2007) and a special course on
“Climate change from the social sciences point of view”. In 2011–2013 UTA
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participated in the Nordic ESDAN project and with the support of the project ESD
was integrated in all the UTA curricula. Courses which contain sustainability
aspects are now labelled in the curricula. Since 2013 a multidisciplinary sustainable
development study module has been open to all UTA students (UTA 2015).
TUT’s new strategy for 2016–2020 states that the technological expertise of
students is built on a solid foundation in mathematics and natural sciences. Students
learn to understand the importance of technology in addressing the challenges of
SD. One of TUT’s four high-quality research fields is energy and eco-efficiency—
circular economy for a greener tomorrow. The integration of environmental
requirements and SD issues in teaching is—and has been—done throughout
research and degree programs. An excellent specimen is the work which has been
going on consistently at the Department of Chemistry and Bioengineering on
International Water Education and Training Activities in Eastern Africa, Namibia,
the Baltic-Nordic region and Eastern Europe. TUT holds a Unesco Chair in Sustainable Water Services (TUT 2016b; UNESCO 2012).
Degree studies in TAMK and POLAMK lead mainly to professional bachelor
degrees. In these degrees ESD is embedded in the professional competences. For
instance in the education of policemen social sustainability is considered as the
most important dimension of sustainability as the task of the police is to uphold
social order and juridical system, maintain public order and safety and prevent and
investigate crime. The values and good practises underlying police operations are
incorporated into the ethical oath of the police (Police of Finland 2016). Inclusion
of sustainability in the value bases of all bachelor degrees was surveyed in TAMK
in 2012. At least one dimension of sustainability was mentioned in the value bases
of 68 % of the degrees (TAMK 2012).
All universities have taken actions to reduce the environmental impacts of
university buildings, facilities and everyday actions. UTA has been a pioneer in
using fair trade products in university catering and was the first university in
Finland to achieve the Fairtrade University title in 2009. That requires university to
promote fair trade, take into consideration its responsibility for the community and
acknowledge its social liability and ethical values when making acquisitions (UTA
2016a).
6
The UNIPOLI Green Network at Work
The UNIPOLI Green network was launched in the spring of 2014. The environmental coordinator of UTA convened a meeting to discuss the situation of sustainable development in the universities operating in Tampere. The meeting
resulted in a decision of establishing a loose cooperation network to help sharing
ideas, promote sustainability campaigns and gain new momentum for the sustainability work. The network started to call itself UNIPOLI Green referring to the
co-operation platform of the HEIs.
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For the time being the UNIPOLI Green group has mainly had resources for
electronic communication. The members of the network meet approximately
monthly during the semesters and the meetings are hosted alternately by member
universities. All members are able to raise issues on the agenda and there is no
chairperson in the network. The agenda for the next meeting is agreed in the end of
each meeting and in e-mail discussions. Summaries of meetings are distributed to
all members of the network. Matters discussed in the meetings and promoted
together can be divided into three major themes (1) promoting awareness of sustainable development practices at the campus and in the community (2) sharing
information and influencing management to make commitments on sustainability
and (3) developing curricula.
6.1 Promoting Awareness
Events promoting sports on campuses and sustainable commuting (e.g. bicycling)
are an established part of UNIPOLI cooperation under UNIPOLI Sport. Therefore
combining SD with sports promotion proved easy. The first UNIPOLI Green
activity was together with the Fairtrade City Tampere-project to donate Fair Trade
balls for UNIPOLI Sport (universities joint sport services) and the student unions of
all universities.
After this first experience of arranging activities together, organizing and
informing together about activities soon became an important branch of action in
UNIPOLI Green. So far the common campaigns include tips for energy saving
distributed in all universities during the National Energy Saving Week 2014, Fair
Trade Treasure Hunt in the National Fair Trade Week 2014 and 2015 and arranging
and informing about Earth Hour activities in 2015 and 2016. Arranging fair trade
activities revealed that the fair trade idea was quite poorly known among the
students of TAMK. Jointly organized and promoted Earth Hour activities gained
publicity in the local media.
As a part of promoting sustainable lifestyles the members of UNIPOLI Green
have recognized the need for effective communication on campuses. UNIPOLI
Green’s solution for this was to establish a character contest in the fall of 2014. The
contest was open for students and staff of all universities and it resulted in thirteen
proposals. The winning character was called “Nipoli” referring to nagging—but not
that badly nagging—with the person looking like a senior lecturer. According to the
description of the character, “Nipoli” is more like a house elf—a tiny creature
reminding everybody about the importance of sustainability in the daily actions
(Picture 1). The UNIPOLI Green group was very satisfied with this character and
ordered some cartoon with special messages from the artist. This character is used
UNIPOLI Green’s online ads.
Strategic
Environmental specialist
(since 2009) in facilities
management, no special
resource in SD
Yearly in a report together
with safety issues
Not systematically organized
Part of professional studies in
most programs, emphasis on
ecological and economical
sustainability
Student activism on
environmental impacts, 1996
Strategic
Full time coordinator (since
2006) in facilities management,
steering group appointed by
rector (since 2007)
Yearly, indicators are set
Multidisciplinary SD study
module (emphasis on social
sustainability), Global Health and
Development Program
SD in
urriculum
development
SD related
contents
Systematically checked and
marked in curricula since 2013
An active lecturer, 1996
15,000/2000
Students and
staff
Origin of SD
work and
starting point
Commitment
in SD
Organization
of SD
Reporting
Technological, Research
Oriented: Bachelor’s,
Master’s and Doctoral
degrees
10,500/2000
Research oriented: Bachelor’s,
Master’s and Doctoral degrees
University
profile
Tampere University of
Technology (TUT)
University of Tampere (UTA)
University
Table 1 Comparison of sustainability work in UNIPOLI Green Universities
Part of professional studies in
most programs, ecological,
social and/or economic
sustainability
Yearly reporting developing
through commitment 2050
Part of curriculum update 2016
Group for SD, work lead by
teaching staff, real estate
management cooperates
Commitment 2050
D.P. in Environmental
Engineering, 2003
10,000/700
Professionally oriented
Bachelor’s and Master’s
degrees
Tampere University of Applied
Sciences (TAMK)
(continued)
Social sustainability part of
professional growth
Not systematically
organized
Strategic (social
sustainability)
No special resource in SD
Management, 2014
1000/200
Professionally oriented
Bachelor’s and Master’s
degrees
Police University College
(POLAMK)
Unipoli Green—Four Universities Working Together …
265
Networks for researchers
interested in SD interested
researchers in international
development and SD
Technologies promoting
environmental sustainability
International Water
Education
Through cooperation with
students, university staff and
stakeholders
Trough sustainability guide,
cooperation with students,
university staff and stakeholders
SD and
research,
development
and
innovation
In cooperation with real estate
owners, e.g. new BREEAM
certified building
In cooperation with the real estate
owners, e.g. new BREEAM
certified building
SD in real
estate
management
and
construction
Awareness
raising
Tampere University of
Technology (TUT)
University of Tampere (UTA)
University
Table 1 (continued)
Technologies promoting
sustainability. Sanitation and
sustainable tourism projects in
developing countries
Through student projects,
cooperation with stakeholders
an and University FB profile
Own buildings,
Energy-Efficiency Agreement:
goals for diminishing use of
energy, student projects
Tampere University of Applied
Sciences (TAMK)
Social sustainability is
integrated into Finnish
police organisation by
legislation and approach
Operates in facilities
provided by real estate
owners committed to
sustainable development
Police University College
(POLAMK)
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E. Asikainen et al.
Unipoli Green—Four Universities Working Together …
267
Originally UNIPOLI Green sook wider use of the character, but this was hindered by objection coming from the university services and communications
departments of some universities. Firstly they have expressed concerns that using
this character widely would disturb the aesthetics of university interior. Secondly it
has proven very difficult to find more permanent campaign topics which could be
agreed by all universities until UNIPOLI Green’s mandate is not sufficient.
6.2 Sharing Information and Influencing Management
The top management’s commitment to promote sustainability is of vital importance
for successful SD promotion. This is a clear message from the success stories of
building sustainable universities like Chalmers in Sweden (Holmberg et al. 2012) or
Novia in Finland (Holm 2014). UNIPOLI Green helps all participating universities
in influencing top management by providing a platform for sharing and evaluating
national and international developments and discussing possible directions of
actions.
For example in spring 2014, when the Finnish Ministry of Environment launched a public pledge campaign “Commitment 2050” (Ministry of the Environment
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2015), UNIPOLI Green soon discussed this possibility for making a stronger
statement on sustainability in the HEIs of Tampere. It was suggested that the
universities would make a shared commitment to sustainability and UNIPOLI
Green members discussed this option with the top managements. The initiative was
not successful. Tracking exact reasons is difficult, but clearly timing was unfortunate. The economic situation of universities was difficult and UTA, TUT and
TAMK started Tampere3 process possibly heading to merger. This took the top
management’s attention. However, the “Commitment 2050” was taken on the
agenda in two of the universities. TAMK joined the commitment in October 2015
and the process is going on in UTA (Asikainen 2015; Commitment 2050 2016).
When the merger process started, UNIPOLI Green discussed its threats and
possibilities for SD in the campuses. The members of the network have actively
raised up SD issues in all possible forums, discussed together about the developments in each university and made initiatives. So far this has resulted in establishing
an official working group to coordinate ESD in Tampere3 process. The mandate of
this group is limited, but still it proves that the unofficial cooperation has been able
to bring SD part of the agenda of the merger process at least in the shape of ESD.
This work is discussed more in the next chapter.
Affecting top management is not easy, but a larger group can help in formulating
initiatives in such a way that they realize at least partially. UNIPOLI Green has also
been able to convince the top management about the importance of SD in the
Tampere3 process.
6.3 Curriculum Development
Each university has its own curricula and curriculum development processes.
UNIPOLI Green’s interest in curriculum development is in providing as wide as
possible range of sustainability studies open for all students in the member
universities.
In UNIPOLI Green, UTA is the pioneer in curriculum development as it took
part in the Nordic ESDAN project during 2011–2013 (Holm 2014). In UTA a
special SD label was added to the curricula. Some of those SD labelled courses that
were open to all students were chosen to form a SD study module. This multidisciplinary study module is open for all the students of UTA (UTA 2015). The
experiences of UTA have helped in convincing the TAMK management about the
benefits and importance of ESD and organizing ESD curriculum development
work. Renewed curricula with more emphasis on ESD are introduced in September
2016. The need for more transparent expression of sustainability issues has been
raised also in POLAMK.
In spring 2015 UNIPOLI Green members from UTA, TUT and TAMK raised
the matter of joint sustainable development studies in various discussions arranged
as part of Tampere3 process. The purpose of these statements and remarks was to
make vice-rectors conscious of the special opportunity the universities have.
Contacting the vice-rectors proved effective. In October 2015 a group was
Unipoli Green—Four Universities Working Together …
269
appointed to find and select courses which could make up a joint study module of
SD for the students of UTA, TAMK and TUT. The draft of this study module was
presented in December 2015 and it is based on the existing SD study module of
UTA arranged around three main themes: environment and society, responsible
business and entrepreneurship, and health and global development (UTA 2015).
TUT and TAMK widen the perspectives to technology and sustainable use of
natural resources. Most challenging part of this work has been identifying suitable
courses bearing in mind that the students’ backgrounds can vary greatly. Another
challenge is that UTA and TUT are more research oriented universities, whereas
TAMK and POLAMK have professional education orientation.
7
Achievements, Challenges and Aspirations
This section discusses the experiences of UNIPOLI Green group on
inter-institutional cooperation in promoting SD. The section is based on discussions
of the group members i.e. the authors.
In the case of Tampere, the universities have made strategic commitments to
promote sustainability. Nevertheless there are profound differences in organizing
the practical work and in allocating resources into sustainability work. The people
responsible for SD are in all these universities quite solitary and feel the lack of
collegial discussion in their work.
This is probably the most important reason why networking is experienced as
meaningful, effective and rewarding. It offers platform for continuous improving
and learning from each other, which encourages everyday work. As the SD coordinator of UTA described in one discussion: “If you suggest something at work, it
comes back to you and you’ll have to do it yourself. Here you can find somebody to
do at least part of it. And you also get the feeling that your work helps others. It
spreads to other universities”. This has been true for example in the case of
spreading fair trade awareness through joint campaigns and in starting the joint SD
study module work.
The representative of the Police College University has stated quite clearly that
learning from other universities experiences has been most helpful in deciding how
to proceed in arranging SD work. “It is also good to hear that it has not been easy
to get started anywhere - and you can always come here and let the steam out”.
Also other members of the group have mentioned this supportive, encouraging and
motivating dimension of UNIPOLI Green.
Among the participating institutions UTA has the longest, best established and
resourced tradition of sustainability work. Other participants have benefited from
UTA’s experience for example by learning about wider national and international
networks. This helps using resources allocated in SD more effectively. Also writing
this paper has been a very revealing learning experience on the history of Finnish
HEIs and SD networks for those who have only short experience in SD work.
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One clear benefit mentioned by the participants is professional heterogeneity.
The coordinators from UTA and TUT come from university services (facilities
management) and the coordinators of TAMK and POLAMK have teaching-related
positions. Also the members have various academic backgrounds: engineering,
environmental policy, ecology and education. As the backgrounds and expertises
on sustainability work differ, many questions rise during meetings. “Having to
explain helps you organize your thoughts and takes you further in your own work”,
comments the coordinator of TUT. This way UNIPOLI Green helps spreading
information inside HEIs and covering all areas of SD work: education, research and
everyday actions.
The examples above demonstrate that the solitary work of SD coordinators can
be boosted by collegial inspiration. A strong in-campus network would be ideal for
that (Kurland 2011), but our experience is that a local inter-institutional network
can also prove beneficial. UNIPOLI Green has offered this and thus catalyzed SD
work. It has also given more weight on the SD work and helped influencing on the
top management.
The voluntary network has also met its limitations. As the group does not have
formal status and has only very limited budget, it is often dependent on the university services’ or communications departments’ will to take ideas forward or
implement them. This was clearly noticed in the case of trying to launch the
common character for communicating SD more effectively on campuses. Finding
common understanding about the ways of using the character as part of communications has proven very difficult.
8
Concluding Remarks
In this paper we have described voluntary cooperation for sustainable development
between four Finnish HEIs located in the same city. Our conclusion is that local
inter-institutional cooperation can facilitate and strengthen SD promotion in the
HEIs joining the network. According to our experiences the mechanisms contributing to this are based in the power of group. A peer group of professionals
sharing same aspirations, interests and problems helps otherwise solitary working
professionals share their problems, knowledge and experiences, be credited and
share ideas. This opportunity is missing from the daily working life of sustainability
coordinators at least in most Finnish universities. The coordinator may have an
advisory committee or working group that supports the work, but often his or her
role in the actual lobbying and promotion work is to convince others and advocate
new ideas.
Furthermore, our experiences indicate that during a great change process, like
the ongoing merger in three higher education instutions of Tampere, voluntary
cooperation between HEIs helps keeping sustainability aspects on the agenda.
When the same message comes repeatedly from all universities it cannot easily be
left unattended. This way the UNIPOLI Green network was able to start
Unipoli Green—Four Universities Working Together …
271
preparations for sustainable development study module for open for students from
all universities in Tampere.
Voluntary inter-institutional network does, however, have its limitations. At least
in our case they are related to unclear mandate and position of the group. However,
the benefits of networking outweigh the difficulties: awareness raising campaigns
are more visible and creative, management takes commonly addressed initiatives or
ideas already tested in one university more seriously than completely new thoughts.
And finally, sustainability coordinators have found a new working community,
which motivates their work.
Thus inter-institutional networking speeds up adoption of new, more sustainable
practices, which is the ultimate mission of promoting SD in universities. Based on
our experiences, we recommend local collegial collaboration between educational
institutions for all SD promotion professionals.
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Author Biographies
Eveliina Asikainen works as senior lecturer forestry and chairs the working group for sustainable
development in Tampere University of Applied Sciences. She is M.Sc. in biology and Doctor of
Administration in Environmental Policy.
Sannamari Hellman holds M.Sc. in Technology, graduated in Environmental engineering and
Biotechnology. Her background is in research but she has worked as an environmental specialist at
TUT since 2009.
Lotta Parjanen serves as senior inspector in the Police University College. When she was head of
the student services, she founded group for sustainable development in Police University College.
She holds M.Sc. in education.
Marika Puputti works as a head of student services in the Police University college of Finland.
She has a M.Sc. in environmental sciences from Kuopio University (University of Eastern
Finland). She is also a qualified information specialist.
Saana Raatikainen is a Master in Administration and graduated in Environmental Policy in 2003.
She has worked as an environmental coordinator at UTA since 2001. She has also completed a
study program in Administration and Management in Higher Education.
Marjut Schroderus was Unipoli Project Manager responsible for collaboration network
coordination of four local higher education institutes, Police University College, Tampere
University of Applied Sciences, Tampere University of Technology and University of
Tampere until 30th June 2016. She has a background working in various administrative tasks
in Universities and working in co-operation between academia and public sector. She holds a M.
Sc. (Admin. Sc., public law) from the University of Tampere.